Cherry Cinnamon
by N. Risa
Summary: It's easy to be friends when one is odd, and the other is socially oblivious. AU. No powers. College setting.


_**A/N**_: Decided to pop out witness protection because I'm in desperate need of sunlight. Shout out to my _Rodent_ of a hitman (you know who you are) and that crafty little _Cam_ who always gives him my location. Stay bright, stay bold, and keep shooting your shots kids; kisses from Tal!

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**The carousel **_**never**_** stops turning.**

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In a dorm painted olive grey, with furniture mismatched and an open door, Brick preoccupied himself with his last-minute assignment. Blossom would have helped if she could, but they were in different majors and honestly, she didn't want to.

Her lips were moving rather animatedly, and it had been a great distraction from the terrible singing in the dorm room next to him. Had Blossom not gotten such a great first impression of Brick, their friendship wouldn't have lasted this long.

Junior year, half hour before the homecoming dance, Blossom's date managed to get himself caught trying to buy liquor at some backwater gas station with his stupid fake ID. It took her an hour's wait at the dance and 8 unanswered calls for her disappointment to sink in and faking smiles at the punch bowl was getting tiring and strained.

The dance floor was livid. Her friends would peak behind their dates to give worried glances as she stared at the entrance. Sam was always kind of slow, but his good looks and charisma had somehow found a way to make up for it. The thing was, Blossom's phone didn't buzz once that night. After she went through the five stages of grief, she circled back to anger and silently cursed the passing minutes in her head.

_Betrayed_.

Well, that was one way to put it, but just the idea she'd been stood up _really_ put a dent in that ego of hers. Despite the many compliments, mermaid dresses weren't for her. _He_ thought it was cool and her dad _hated_ it so forgive her for giving the rebellious stage a shot.

So there she was in the school's auditorium, sitting on the stage while envying the girls lost in their date's conversation. A plastic cup of fruit punch was being slowly sipped because it was too watery, and its essence lacked sugar. And there Brick was; her knight in not-so-shining armour. His hands dusting over the garbage bin as he scanned the room for teachers. His shoulders a bit tensed as he thought over his actions.

Blossom was someone he noticed by accident. Her eyes cascaded past him and his paranoia made him assume she knew. Her dress was constricting. Heaven understood her struggle to kick her legs as freely as she'd like. The pop music slowed to trash at the two-hour mark. First kisses were being made, the '_awes_' were overwhelmingly loud and the cupcake stand was too far for her to mope towards.

Unknowingly, Brick was smooth.

He smiled, lazily dragging his legs to where she sat, his accent being a unique drawl she'd heard maybe once or twice that week. She shifted in confusion, her fingers pointed at herself, her lips mouthing 'me?'.

He inched towards the stage, pressed a palm on it before he asked, "You're that girl who answers all the math questions?"

More of a declaration than a query, and since it had been true, she blushed and nodded uneasily. He emanated confidence. The type that kept her on-guard and passively nervous. He talked a lot. Used too many words to get his point across but his blunt honesty made it easy to conversate.

Blossom was an odd child. That was probably the reason she never shooed him away. Then again, miscalculating people was a rare occurrence. He hadn't called her a nerd and it was upsetting.

The shiny black jacket in his hands had a fresh tear. She could have seen sweating at his chest of she really looked. He smelt good and he was a tough nut to crack, so instead of feeling sorry for herself, she focused on getting to know the boy whose face was vaguely familiar.

She lost like, five, ten minutes in his idle chat, and even though the conversation was controlled by him, she felt herself at ease.

"Hey? So! Do me a favour…" He seemed embarrassed, the way he scratched the back of his head or how he longer matched her stare was his bit _tell_, "Forget you saw that?"

"Saw what?"

"Nice," His smile so wide that it creased the sides of his lips with three wrinkles —the third on the right looking almost like a dimple. And with the same speed he turned to walk away, he faced her with a mischievous smile, "Your name? Didn't catch it."

To a junior year high schooler, that line was pretty cool.

And when Blossom answered with a nervous hand twiddle, he got the courage to make a new friend, "Wanna dance?"

So that was her first memory of him — Brick Jojo; fairly decent basketball player, overly confident party goer and a rowdy little rascal.

"At least get your feet off my bed."

Blossom paid him little mind as she made herself comfortable in his room. Her eyes never left the door frame as she watched the passing bodies with odd interest. Brick's radio was on its last legs. Static and interference was a killer as it always seemed to disrupt the best part of the songs.

"…and the shrimp pasta was…"

Allegedly, Brick wasn't a good listener; either he'd talk over you or he lived up to his name. If Blossom cared, she wouldn't have gone there in the first place because if it wasn't Brick's apparent lack of interest, it was the noise level. But being frank, she just wanted his company for a few hours.

"Go over that last part again?"

His pencil traced a line in his textbooks, fingers almost digging into his scalp. She wouldn't be surprised if there'd be a scab or two, but she was never one to judge a coping method. The open window brought in cold breeze and mosquitoes. Her pores like craters while Brick seemed unbothered by everything. She watched in envy the thick Townsville U. jacket he wore while she wrapped his thin sheet around her shoulders.

The buzzing was getting to her more than his neighbour's singing, and she knew her visit would've been cut short if the lit citronella candles didn't work. Then there were hushed whispers outside his room. A little stretch of her neck and she could see some first years giggling in a circle at something one of the male occupants had said while shirtless.

"About the food?" Blossom clarified, "It was to die for!"

"No, not that… you spent fifty on pasta?"

"Well… not _me_ exactly…" she trailed off searching for his point. "More like my date." She said the last with pride, watching him oddly as she studied his reaction. He scrounged his nose, taking a scratch of his right brow before sighing.

She hated how disappointingly uninterested he was, but before she could pout, she grinned; her tease hopefully sparking a more favourable reaction.

"Jealous?"

"For a fifty dollar pasta?" he asked, blowing the _ridiculous_ away with his lips, "I rather the cash."

"You're no fun," her mumble being hardly heard. Brick… as usual, missed her whole fucking point so her bragging went straight over his head. He was a man who barely got flustered or embarrassed. To be honest, he doesn't even flinch at horror movies… sometimes he'd laugh and annoy the daylight out of his frightened peers.

He was sickening to the point where she'd do things to remind him she was a woman. So imagine how low she felt when her childish actions failed. And you know what made matters worse? Brick had an iconic glare which was a mixture of worried and '_bitch-what-the-fuck_' which was probably crated just for her.

Understand that they were both halfway broke; she _way_ more than Brick. Her allowance didn't quite live up to the lifestyle she preferred. Hence, her spending habits were something that constantly worried Brick. Habit made him swirl his chair to give Blossom's outfit a once over. The tone she used was hiding something he really wanted the answer to.

She'd been wearing makeup, something he mildly noticed when she first decided to barge in his room. "Nice dress," suspicion in his statement; a statement which sounded more like a query.

"Borrowed it from Bubbles."

"The dress or the money?"

"Uh…"

"_Blossom_."

"Brick…"

"Borrowing money for a dress now Blossom? Really?"

"This one's not nice?"

"Not the question I asked."

"I went on a date Brick, a date." She rolled her eyes, "Normal people try to look their best for these kinds of things."

"Normal people don't pay fifty on pasta."

Somehow, she found herself defending her evening out, "Well it was shrimp… and… uh, we had steak after."

"By _we_ you mean?" he asked, the ding of his laptop stealing his attention, "How much of you?"

She almost scoffed at that question, "It was a date Brick… and… oh yeah, I got you something."

"Uh huh?" he clearly wasn't paying attention as he replied to his messages, but the crackling sound of the plastic bag was all he needed to put that typing to a stop.

"Doggie bag." She shouted on purpose, and it wasn't the singing neighbour or his crappy radio that had impaired his hearing a few seconds ago.

"Why?"

She was a bit off guard by his reaction. "To show off?"

He was suspiciously silent… and you see that pen he rudely picked up to continue his last-minute assignment? It was dropped as he waited for Blossom's point.

"Bet you're jealous now." She teased.

"Rather the money..."

"Jerk." Challenging him was mostly a waste of time. Teasing him was stupid and he only understood his own jokes. Brick's a… tough nut to crack. There she was, lying on the bed he cursed he not to sit on, buzzing on her lips as she was bored out of her mind, "So….what you did all day?"

"Same old, same old."

_Fucking_ _irritating_! "And that's?"

"Sleep, FIFA…" his hands animatedly pointed towards his half-done paper, "This shit."

"I told you to do it since last week."

"Blossom… shut up."

She stuck her tongue out despite knowing he couldn't see her, and with as much sass she could muster, she stomped her way to his desk and dropped the doggie bag. "You should eat."

He didn't know why he held his tongue on how good it smelt. Maybe because he'd spend so much time dogging on expensive food that he'd hate to admit it might be worth it. So instead, he nodded for a thanks, and dished out a better compliment than, 'You clean up nice.'

So she smiled as she usually did, flattening out the creases on her new dress as she lingered near his desk for a few moments longer. He'd be lying if he said she didn't look flattering, but he'd seen her on better days and overselling it would have been an obvious suck up.

"Leaving?"

She shrugged, lips forced upwards in deep thought, "You got that assignment to finish…"

"And?"

"You need to finish…" She might have accidentally mothered him with that tone.

"Gonna order pizza soon…" Thankfully, he didn't give a shit.

There was a bored, child-like expression on his face. Chances were, she stayed there, they'd blow off steam with a beer or two and she'd stained the dress she broke her pockets for. He was waiting for her answer, his hand hovering over his pen in anticipation. Blossom's visits were as seldom as they were enjoyable, and if she'd leave now, it may be weeks before she'd revisit again.

"Nah," she decided, "Think I'll get a head start on midterms," she laughed softly, "These books aren't gonna study themselves."

He gripped the pen, tackling the question he really didn't want to, "Don't be a stranger."

"When am I ever?" She giggled, pulling her purse up the crook of her arm.

His hair was ruffled by her fingers, the smell of cinnamon and musk slightly replacing the savoury aroma in the air. When the door shut behind her, his room got a bit warmer, and with some of the outside noises dulled, the words she'd said finally reached his ear. His lips, a bit dry and chapped, curled for the word that brought a lot of questions, "_Date_?"

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Hiya, a message from your neighbourhood slow updater! The last "new" story I'll be posting for the year will be a blues story named "Classy" or "Classically". It features an art school dropout who still has a taste for the craft.  
After posting that, I'll return to updating my older stories with "Know Your Place" probably being the exception. Cheers to 2020. All updates and rereleases (of revamped stories) will resume from then! My blessing!


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